Stannah Stairlift - Buyer beware!

peterlucas

My aged parents bought a new Stannah Stairlift Siena 600 at approx. £3,000 which came with a 2-year warranty. During the first 2-years we had a couple of call-outs per year due to faults beyond the annual maintenance visits. Within 6-months of the warranty period passing (June 2018), the stairlift needed a new rail as the chair was no longer picking up the charge along the rail. Stannah offer two extended warranties, one is basic '3-star' package at £142 (excluding VAT), and the other is their '5-star' cover at £307 (excluding VAT) but includes certain replacement parts (extended warranty prices as at December 2017).

I suggest any potential Stannah stairlift buyers do the following: Look for a second-hand stairlift as we don't think we've had value for money or reliability in keeping with the brand, if you do buy a new stairlift look at buying the extended warranty and then make full use of the breakdown cover callouts as this should encourage Stannah to resolve design issues, or if you don't buy the Stannah extended warranty find a local reliable service provider (and make sure they have Stannah stairlift experience and they can buy Stannah spare parts as not all service companies can access parts). We don't think our experience of Stannah is as per the marketing literature, and so buyer beware as our experience is their expensive lifts aren't as reliable as hoped for...

hollydays

It's difficult for a lay person to buy a secondhand stairlift And find someone willing to fit it. Unless you have any links

maninthestreet

Sounds like they've been taken for a ride....

JJ_Egan

hollydays wrote: »

It's difficult for a lay person to buy a secondhand stairlift And find someone willing to fit it. Unless you have any links

A number of the company's supply SH .
Their are also lift service engineers that supply and fix SH .
Its a question of finding them for your location .

hollydays

JJ_Egan wrote: »

A number of the company's supply SH .
Their are also lift service engineers that supply and fix SH .
Its a question of finding them for your location .

Ah, that's why I asked for links

JJ_Egan

Dolphin Lifts Concept Lifts are two that spring to mind .
Many that install SH are one man bands often working for a lift company .

Kej

I too, have had a long and sadly, dirty battle with Stannah southeast office. A (simple up and down) lift with endless troubles since installation, no technical support or insight. Inconsistent customer service, downright rude office staff, arrogant managers. I did get them round to an additional warranty year in the end, but will be using independent contractors for problems after that - as I don’t doubt there will be.

SevenOfNine

MiL/FiL had an Acorn stairlift for some years without problems (other than the odd repair & service).

There are a few charities who will supply reconditioned ones because when they'd both died we contacted some to give it away, but collection times were so far ahead the house was sold faster!

AgeUK might be useful?https://www.ageukmobility.co.uk/product-category/stairlifts?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjL6zv5ab3wIVh7TtCh0BIQY4EAAYASAAEgKLxfD_BwE

Maybe they can also offer some advice on how to deal with Stannah?